I am a Shopper!

While I don’t mind online shopping, I’m more of a bricks and mortar fan.

My idea of a great day is to meet my best friend at Bellevue Square and make the rounds – Starbucks – Nordstrom – Crate and Barrell – Pottery Barn – Nordstrom – Lunch with prosecco – Nordstrom.  I am perfectly happy coming home with just a tee shirt and a new lipstick.

My idea of a fun weekend is taking the train to Portland with my friends and spending time at our favorite spots: Grayling Jewelry, Powell’s Books and Sur La Table (already a COVID bricks and mortar casualty). The trip is capped off with some Moonstruck Chocolate treats from my daughter for our train ride home.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t add a Saturday trip to Seattle with my husband and brunch at Ettas followed by a stroll through Pike Place Market.

I also enjoy less ambitious shopping trips.  I like shopping in Tacoma’s Proctor district and at Target.

Since I retired, I also enjoyed grocery shopping.  Yes, even grocery shopping will do.  In the ‘beforetimes’, it was common to find me taking a grocery store run every other day…..and sometimes every day.

COVID times have upended all of that. No more shopping trips to Bellevue, Portland, Seattle or even Tacoma.

My twice weekly grocery store trips are now filled with stress:

• I need to go early
• I need to have a list and shop in stores that I know well
• I mask up, wear gloves, and try to physically distance myself from other shoppers

I am very aware of (and irritated by) unmasked shoppers, particularly those who dawdle and don’t follow the aisle directional signs.  My first question when my husband comes home from shopping is ‘how was it’?  I am asking about mask wearing, shopper behavior and crowds, not about what he bought.

One of the hard things right now is to try and visualize the ‘aftertimes’ when it comes to one of my favorite pastimes.

What stores and restaurants will survive COVID times? What will the new bricks and mortar shopping experience be like? 

And how long is COVID time anyway?????

Allene

Note, as always I have no direct financial relationship with any of the posted links.

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